Mayor’s Back to School Bash is Saturday

The Cheatham County Chamber of Commerce will join forces with Cheatham County Mayor David McCullough and A.O. Smith to host the third annual Mayor’s Back to School Bash on the Cheatham County Courthouse lawn on Saturday, Aug. 1 from 9-11 a.m.

Sponsored by A.O. Smith, the free event provides Cheatham County schoolchildren with backpacks, school supplies, and information about community resources.

“This year will be the biggest yet, with over 20 local businesses and nonprofits participating,” said Chamber executive director Brandi Ghergia. “I’m proud of our business community and the overwhelming support they’ve provided. All of us want to see our students succeed, and providing them with basic supplies and giving their parents much-needed local resources is a step in that direction.”

During this year’s event, Chamber staff and volunteers will be verifying Cheatham County residency for each student participating. Parents should come prepared with a driver’s license, vehicle registration or recent utility bill.

Each student will be provided with a card that will need to be stamped by 10 or more vendors in order to receive a backpack. Nearly all vendors will provide school supplies.

“We’ve been telling our vendors to prepare for 1,000 students. During last year’s Back to School Bash, we distributed 750 backpacks, which A.O. Smith employees filled with school supplies. We expect this year’s crowd to be bigger. One of our vendors, Dell Military, will be doing a drawing for a tablet,” Ghergia said.

For more information, contact the chamber at 615-792-6722 or info@cheathamchamber.org.

The Ark hosting school kickoff event

The Ark Community Resource Center is hosting a School Kickoff and Supply Giveaway for South Cheatham County residents on Saturday, Aug. 8 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The event will be held at Pegram Park off Thompson Road.

All students who are kindergarten through high school age living in Kingston Springs and Pegram and their families are invited to the event.

Free school supplies and backpacks will be distributed to students.

There will also be free hot dogs, chips, cookies, drinks and snow cones.

Other activities will include music, games and special services such as Back to School hair trims, parenting helps and more.

The Ark invites churches and businesses and other community groups and individuals to partner with them with donations of money and specific school supplies. Help is also needed on the day of the event.

Donations can be dropped off at The Ark, 710 Highway 70 in Pegram, Monday-Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. or made online at ark-noahs.org.

For more information or if you would like to volunteer, call Anne Carty at 615-457-1931.